September 11, 2001: Nurture Every Moment

“For me and my family personally, September 11 was a reminder that life is fleeting, impermanent, and uncertain. Therefore, we must make use of every moment and nurture it with affection, tenderness, beauty, creativity, and laughter.” –Deepak Chopra, M.D.

September 11, 2001. I will never forget watching the planes fly into the towers. I had put on the TV to watch the news, sat down by 6:00 to watch the morning news and saw the planes hit. It was an incredible feeling that day of life being out of sorts, of something was not right with the world, that our humanity had been shaken to the core.

And, I will admit, I was glued to the TV for the next two or three days, wanting to find out what we knew, what had happened, what our response would be. And what I remember most, is a feeling that life would never be the same again. Things had decidedly shifted. There would always be the time before the 9/11 and the time after 9/11.

And to get through the conflicting feelings, I went to my base, and I gave thanks for all that I had, all I had not lost, and all the love and opportunity surrounding me, in spite of the crisis. I stayed focused on the positives in my life and I dwelled in family love and unity.

“When I look out the window, I exhale a prayer of thanks for the color green, for my children’s safety, for the simple acts of faith like planting a garden that helped see us through another spring, another summer. And I inhale some kind of promise to protect my kids’ hopes and good intentions we began with in this country. Freedom of speech, the protection of diversity — these are the most important ingredients of American civil life and my own survival. If I ever took them for granted, I don’t know.” -Barbara Kingsolver, novelist